Hi there! Today I was working on a mod project for Tiberium sun and stumbled into a problem.

Tiberium Sun uses .shp files for in-game cameos, and I wanted to make a custom one.

For this I attempted to open the .shp for a Titan mech, and make a cameo of it-but the leg and turreted sections were stored in separate parts of the shp, so using the cameo generator would only produce half of the unit.

If you're reading this tutorial I'm hoping you have the same problem, or a similar one. Firstly though there are some things you'll need (But should probably have already)

The solution, I discovered was to capture an in-game screenshot, isolate the unit and cut out the background using an image editor, resize it to the correct size, save it as a PNG, import the PNG into OS SHP Editor and then use the cameo generator (With correct palette settings!) to export the cameo as a SHP. Then, I used XCC Mixer to replace the original mmchicon.shp file in the appropriate archive, resulting in this:

(Note: This Titan SHP isn't mine! I took it from Crystallized Doom for use in a personal mod because I can't find a good enough public Titan remake. I've also seen it used in plenty of other mods but don't know of its origin, or even if they've just been stealing from CD as I have been xD The cameo background isn't mine either, it originated from a public pack of new cameos and backgrounds that I've since lost the link to)

Sound complicated? Here's a breakdown.

First, I took a screenshot of a scene in-game, on a map with a fairly neutral background. If you're using a picture from say, google, or you have custom artwork, you won't have to take a screenshot obviously. But the process from here should be similar.

(Edited slightly for size reasons)

Next, using Paint Dot Net I cut out the Titan specifically using crop to selection and the magic wand, I also seperated the Titan from its shadow and stored them on seperate layers. I also cut the dimensions of the original screenshot down, 64x48 is the size that cameos need to be so doing that from the get-go will prevent loss of quality later when it NEEDS to be resized.

The result was this:

Note: You don't need to use Paint Dot Net, I suppose any image editor will suffice as long as it supports PNGs, multiple layers, and transparency. If you're competent in any mainstream editor you could do the same thing.
You also don't have to create a cameo with an in-game screenshot, if you have art or something from google you can make a cameo of it.

After doing those steps, I added a third layer below the first two with an appropriate cameo background. Then I flattened the image and saved it as a PNG. (Image should be 64 x 48 pixels)

So now I had a rough idea of what the cameo would look like: A nice PNG file which can be imported into OS SHP builder via the file/import/Image --> SHP tab.

With the import tab open, you'll want the following settings. I'm not sure they're all necessary but I had... Issues without them, and I found this specific combo to work.

With all of these settings correctly done, you're good to hit 'OK' and import your PNG file.

Once you get in the interface, go to tools/misc/Cameo Generator.
Make sure that the Game is set to TS, and that your options either resemble this or you know what you're doing.

With all that done, simply do a save as, navigate to your new cameo SHP and open the .mix archive you want to add it to using XCC Mixer, then drag and drop it in. If you followed these steps, and correctly referenced the cameo in your art.ini file, you should now be able to see it in game!
Here's an example of the treatment given to a Zone Trooper model done by Machine - excellent work by the way. It's awesome.

So, in closing, I hope someone somewhere finds this tutorial helpful. I know there are other tutorials out there on how to create cameos but none seemed to have exactly what I needed, and some were REALLY out of date.

If you have a problem with the steps described you can PM me and I'll do the best I can to help you through it.

Only for the image conversion i would suggest using "Delta E CIE 2000". It's the slowest but giving best result imo and for a single tiny cameo image, the speed doesn't matter.

Another hint: if you have to create a lot of cameos this way, i would suggest creating a plain colored ground tile and create a testmap using this ground. It should make the cropping out the unit part much easier when you don't have a brown/gold unit above a brown ground, but a plain purple ground for example.
If terrain editing is not that familiar to you, you could also create a simple SHP with a big purple area. Then add to a dummy building

art.ini

Code:

ActiveAnimFour=PURPLEBIB
ActiveAnimFourZAdjust=0

;add this to rules.ini [Animations] list
[PURPLEBIB]
Flat=yes
Surface=yes
LoopStart=0
LoopEnd=1 ;give the SHP only a single frame
LoopCount=-1
Rate=0
YSortAdjust=-2000 ;always draw this under units

@Banshee: can you upload the images to PPM before the external hoster deletes them and renders the tutorial useless?_________________SHP Artist of Twisted Insurrection: Nod buildings

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